Attention all Knifemakers!.....Product dealers/retailers and/or knife makers/sharpeners/hobbyists (etc) are not permitted to insert business related text/videos/images (company/company name/product references) and/or links into your signature line, your homepage url (within the homepage profile box), within any posts, within your avatar, nor anywhere else on this site. Market research (such as asking questions regarding or referring to products/services that you make/offer for sale or posting pictures of finished projects) is prohibited. These features are reserved for supporting vendors and hobbyists.....Also, there is no need to announce to the community that you are a knifemaker unless you're trying to sell something so please refrain from sharing.
Thanks for your co-operation!

If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

DHL invoice after getting a JNS shipment in the US?

I've placed two orders with Maxim. After my most recent order, I received an invoice for duty assessed by DHL. I know other countries pay an import duty, but I've never paid one in the U.S. And I'm not sure why one order was assessed a duty, and the other one wasn't?

Did I just get lucky by not being taxed on the first order, or did DHL make a mistake by billing me for duty on the second?

I got one a couple of years ago for an order from Maxim. The charge was about $60 for random custom inspection recoup cost. If you search for references of incidents, you will find many and many people think that DHL just tries to get some extra money if you are happy to pay.

DHL invoice after getting a JNS shipment in the US?

There's technically a duty on kitchen knives, but not one on sharpening stones. For some reason, USPS almost never imposes a duty, but I've gotten a customs duty for some international packages shipped via ups, FedEx, and DHL.

I've gotten 2 duty invoices for packages from maxim out of probably 15 packages in the last year. On one package that was mostly stones with one knife, I called and said the duty was on the full value of items that shouldn't have been assessed. They wrote me a letter a couple weeks later saying that the duty was in error.

So it seems somewhat arbitrary. It depends on what's marked on the invoice and who's reviewing it at CBP. They have to match up items and values on the invoice with the complex harmonized tariff schedule. You can look up the HTS online if you want.

I called DHL and sayd that my items fell into the last category "Hand sharpening or polishing stones" and were duty free. It's usually someone's job to match up the packing slip with the ITC categories, and assess duties if any are due. People make mistakes, especially on small tickets